Rabies - Mexico : (Jalisco)

RABIES - MEXICO: (JALISCO)
**************************
A ProMED-mail post

ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases


Date: Thu 21 May 2009
Source: Milenio online [in Spanish, trans. & summ. Mod.TY, edited]


A 63-year-old man residing in a small community in the
Hostotipaquillo municipality became the 2nd fatal sylvatic [wildlife]
rabies victim so far this year [2009] in the state. After inquiries
with family members, the Jalisco Secretariat of Health (SSJ) presumed
that he was bitten by a bat that transmitted the virus.

Yesterday [20 may 2009], the director general of Public Health of the
SSJ [Jalisco Health Secretariat], Elizabeth Ulloa Robles, said the
man indicated to his family that something bit him on the elbow, but
that it was not important. On 10 May [2009], 3 days before going to
the Magdalena Regional Hospital, he began to show general weakness,
paralysis of the hands, and alterations in gait, among other
symptoms; an internist considered that he had neurological
deterioration and sent him to the Juan I Menchaca Civil Hospital of
Guadalajara. Ulloa Robles added that the patient came to [the
Magdalena Regional Hospital] on 17 May [2009], "when he presented
with a 40 deg C [104 deg F] temperature, alterations in the state of
consciousness, ataxia, stiff neck ... when this was evaluated, as
detected by the temperature, it raised [indication of] an infectious
neurological [disease] process.

He underwent tests, including tomography, but he died the same day
[17 May 2009] at 22:50 hours. After discarding diseases such as
tuberculosis and influenza A H1N1, a sample of brain [tissue] was
sent to the state Public Health Laboratory, and it was determined
that he suffered from rabies [virus infection].

Ulloa Robles indicated that epidemiological barriers were established
in La Venta de Mochitiltic, where the man resided, as well as in 8
other localities in Hostotipaquillo [municipality], villages where
other possibly affected individuals are being sought.

This is the 2nd case of sylvatic rabies death in 2009 [in Jalisco].
On 2 Jan [2009], a 4-year-old girl died after being bitten by a bat,
in San Sebastian del Oeste. There have been no [human] rabies cases
transmitted from a dog or a cat in Jalisco since 1995. Given this
case of wildlife rabies, the SSJ requested that SAGARPA [Ministry of
Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries, and Foods]
analyze the bat population that inhabits caves in the area for
circulation of rabies virus, and if found, to proceed with their destruction.

[Byline: Maricarmen Rello]

Communicated by:
Dr Eduardo Santana C.
Universidad de Guadalajara
Mexico


[It is not clear from this report which species of bat might have
been involved in these 2 cases. However, the bites of vampire bats
(_Desmodus rotundus_), a common transmitter of rabies virus to
livestock and occasionally to humans in the neotropics, are
characteristic and well known to rural people in Mexico. Vampire bat
bites can be discarded in these cases. However, there is evidence of
occurrence of rabies in several species of insectivorous bats in
Mexico (see the following references).